The Not New Comics Thread!

[Phaedrus45]

I'm 20 now and my Girlfriend and I have discussed that if we stick together then we'd try to have kids in our late 20's early 30's latest.

Sounds like a good plan. I just remember when my ex was pregnant with our daughter, thinking "oh my god...I'll be around 55 when she graduates from high school??!!??"

 

[JewishHobbit]

While there's some difficulties that came with it, I'm glad we had our daughters in our early 20's. I was 23 when we had our first daughter and 25 when we had our second). I don't really want anymore and will probably get snipped eventually, but I love the idea of being around 40 when they're old enough to move out of the house, go to college, whatever. I'm still young enough to go and live. Provided there's no accidents or anything I'll definately live to see my grandchildren and most likely my great grandchildren. And being that people in my family all live very long lives I'll most likely see great grandchildren.

If my first daughter had come a week sooner we would have had that whole 5 generations thing going, which would have been neat. Sadly, my great grandmother passed away just prior to my daughter's being born.

But yeah, I get what you're saying Phaed, and I'm thankful for every minute of it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Thor #304-307 has a great Tales of Asgard backup featuring Balder. Basically, Balder got quasi-killed and was stuck in suspended animation for months as part of this big scheme Odin had to prevent Ragnarok. His spirit wandered Valhalla and witnessed the horrors of the place since Hela somehow usurped control of it from Odin. When he was finally revived after Thor collected a bit of life energy from all of Earth's other major pantheons and restored all the Asgardians, he came back a pacifist, unwilling to fight for fear of killing another warrior and sending them to Valhalla.

So Balder starts off in a funk, understandably. Karnilla, whom he's had an on-again/off-again relationship with since back in Stan Lee's day, tries to woo him again, but he vigorously rejects her advances, claiming his ordeal has changed his feelings for her and he could never love someone evil like her again. So Karnilla, angry at being scorned, has her seeress Haag manipulate events so Balder meets Nanna, a sweet Asgardian goddess. They fall in love and are happy together for weeks. Then Karnilla spirits them away to her castle in Nornheim and blackmails Balder into marrying her to save Nanna's life. He obviously agrees and is pledged to Karnilla forever, unless Karnilla in some way causes Nanna's death.

Here's where things become downright Shakespearean: Balder prepares to wed Karnilla but Nanna proves herself more than a mere damsel in distress. She grabs a knife, steals Odin's 8-legged horse Sleipnir, and halts the wedding at Nornheim by stabbing herself in the heart. Karnilla, seeing how distraught Balder is by all this, actually softens and lets him go, even though she could've easily argued the technicality of Nanna killing herself.

Pretty good story. It actually tugged at my heartstrings a bit, too. Sure, it's melodramatic and verges on the ridiculous, but I appreciated it as a really good, tragic tale about the power and folly of love in the tradition of epic poetry and high drama.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Not too old but I got the Christos Gage Union Jack mini from 3 years ago for a buck a piece at a convention.I read them recently and I loved them!I never really paid attention to Gage all that much before but now I'm Probably be chacking out his stuff more.My only exposure to union jack before this was Captain America #18-21 and I didn't think much of him.But I love the whole working man/man of the people angle Gage does here and he really fleshs out who Joey is.Mike Perkins art as always is flawless and this mini made me love Joey chapman.By the way is he in the Captain Britan series that was recently canceled?If so I'm gonna have to check it out.

He was only a cameo in a couple issues really. That was my only issue with the title. He was a natural choice to be in it but wasn't. I was hoping he'd show up eventually and join the team but unfortunately, the title ended before that could happen. I was always hoping for him and Death's Head II... who surprisingly showed up in the last issue

I'm still hoping for a relauch, or I might even consider buying a title that had it as a back up feature (provided I buy the comic already). And that's saying a lot being that I HATE $4 comics.

That's my way of saying go pick the series up anyway. It was great. I sold it because I needed money and I hate that I did and want to get it again soon.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Your thread made me think of an idea...but, I doubt it would work...or be very good. Think your "Not New Comics Thread" mixed with "Oprah's Book Club." A group of us decide each month a comic or trade paperback to read....probably look at something at first, like Wizard's 50 greatest Trades, and have a discussion about it. Or, it can be a recommendation.

The main problem arises from those who can't get ahold of those comics or trades.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of when I began reading your post, though I know it sounds like a good idea. Wiegeabo mentioned in our Contest of Marvels thread of type of comic book club he's a part of. I forget who hosts it but it was another Hypster.

Still, if I could get ahold of the stories, i'd be all for it. Of course, people could always 'aquire' the stories if they want... and I could do that probably.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Thor #314: A momentous day in Thor history. Now, I may be forgetting something, but as far as I can recall... this is the very first time we've ever seen Don Blake in something other than a suit or scrubs. Sure, it's a rather boring business shirt tucked into some slacks, but still he's got (kind of) casual clothes on--and only 20 issues or so before he'll cease to exist! I thought the guy's wardrobe consisted entirely of 3-piece suits in either blue or brown. Kind of odd when you consider that his wardrobe now consists entirely of sweatshirts, t-shirts, and cargo shorts.

 

[Themanofbat]

I'm reading my old WereWolf by Night's right now... which are easily available in the Essentials...

 

[Phaedrus45]

I'm now reading Testament, a not too old Vertigo series that was released from 2006-2008. I have the first 20 issues (of which there are 22), which I got from Half-Priced books for 9.95.

I've only read the first three comics, and it goes back and forth from Biblical times to the near future, in which the younger generation is expected to get tagged with a device placed under their skin for easy detection. The reason for the Biblical entries is to show how things don't really change that much from the past. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

It's not a bad comic...but, it's one where I keep thinking, "I'm not sure I am enjoying this or not." I have to hold off judgement until I read it a bit more.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Let us know what you think of it when it's finished. I've seen it at my half priced books quite a bit and am always curious but don't know enough about it to justify spending money.

 

[Themanofbat]

I'm now reading Testament, a not too old Vertigo series that was released from 2006-2008. I have the first 20 issues (of which there are 22), which I got from Half-Priced books for 9.95.

I've only read the first three comics, and it goes back and forth from Biblical times to the near future, in which the younger generation is expected to get tagged with a device placed under their skin for easy detection. The reason for the Biblical entries is to show how things don't really change that much from the past. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

It's not a bad comic...but, it's one where I keep thinking, "I'm not sure I am enjoying this or not." I have to hold off judgement until I read it a bit more.

I wanted to get that series when it came out, but I forgot to get the first issues, and then the reviews weren't great...

Let me know when you're done...

 

[Phaedrus45]

I'm gonna read DC: The New Frontier maybe after I read a few more issues of Testament. That was called the Best Graphic Novel by Wizard; and, I have all the single issue in a comic box.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Ok, three old books I have been reading:

Testament 1-7: I don't think I can really recommend this title. After the first 5-part story, the title goes back (to Genesis and the main character's father and mother) and we see the foundation for what we read before. A big part of this comic is God and the other gods who came before. Those previous gods are not happy with "the one true God," who is starting to make them less powerful by not having as many believers. (And, they will eventually lose all power and fade away when nobody believes in them any longer.) Along with this, we see how history repeats itself...sometimes. (At the end of issue #7, we see an instance where things go on a different path.)

Again, as I think more about this comic, the more I guess I am impressed by it. Unlike the next book I'm reviewing, I'm going to go back and read more of this title. It's interesting to see the writer's take on religion and the chapters of the Old Testament that he decides to focus on. Depending on your beliefs, it might determine how well this book is received by you. (The Christian God is not really shown in a good light, by showing how strict he is in his judgements and decisions. But, they are stories that come from the Bible; so, it's hard to ignore them.) This is a racy comic...full of sex and violence; but, so is the Bible, as it's the inspiration for the story that you'll read.

Wow...tough decision. I still can't recommend it, as this is a comic that is for a certain reader...but, it will make you think, which is something I cannot say for the next two titles.

Oh My Goddess #1-3: This Dark Horse title was pretty much complete in the bargain bin of my LCS. At 20 cents an issue, I got most of the entire series; and, I picked up the 3 missing issues on mycomicshop.com. I finally read the first three issues, and decided to stop. I came away very unimpressed.

This Anime title is about a young man who accidentally dials the number for a Goddess Agency, which gives it's client one free wish. The young man, a loser among women, jokes to the Goddess that he wants her by his side forever...and, finds out he cannot take it back. This is all in the first issue, and the subsequent issues really don't flow, as they are pretty much stand alone stories.

I thought this might be a good comic for my daughter to read, and we read the first issue together with no problems. I perused the next two issues myself, and wouldn't read them to her. It's a bit too sex filled, talking about porn...or, the third issue, which focuses on a sleazy guy who tries to steall the Goddess from the young man, and brings her to a hotel for quickies. It's too old for my 7 year old, and it's too young for my tastes.

It's too bad. Hopefully the other Dark Horse Anime comic I got for 20 cents each, Gunsmith Cats, is much better. (I'm also dying to find a good Anime title with the thick books you find in bookstores, like Borders and Barnes and Noble. If anyone has any good recommendations, it's appreciated.)

Deathmate - Entire Series: Now, this was a bad crossover! Coming out in 1993 and 1994, this Image/Valiant company crossover was highly anticipated and sold like hot cakes. Instead of issue numbers, this crossover consisted of two booksends, "Prologue" and "Epilogue," and the four middle books being colors, "Black," "Yellow," "Red," and "Blue." The four middle books were designed this way, because you could read them in any order. (Which was good, because the title was marred by many delays, especially from Image. Quoted from Wiki, "The Image half (Black, Red, and Epilogue) came out severely behind schedule and out of sequence. Deathmate Red shipped after the epilogue issue, and despite cover dates of September 1993 to February 1994, the actual publication lag was far longer than 6 months.")

I have never read any of the Valiant comics, though I do own quite a few. As for the Image titles, I read them very long ago, and can hardly remember anything about their characters. (Not a bad thing, as they were all pretty two dimensional, especially in this series.) I thought it would be a good test how well this reads not knowing much of anything. Sadly, the plot of this story is very, very thin, and the books between the bookends are all pretty useless.

The story is as follows: Solar (Valiant Universe) encounters Void (Image Universe) in a place between their two universes. They instantly fall in love, and this love creates "an unwrapping of the fabric of time causing it to spiral inwards and eat way at their distant timelines." In essense, it's an amalgam universe of their two worlds, where the characters are the same, just on different teams and different sides. Some characters become aware that their world is false, and try to convince the others to see the reality of their false lives.

It's pretty useless reading the Image publications; it seems the Valiant people had a clear idea of what they wanted to do, showing the deterioration of this false world...in the image titles, they focused more on good guy fighting good guy, and they would throw in a Valiant character who really doesn't do much in their story. It was a weak premise, the two worlds weren't amalgamed effectively, and overall poorly executed. In fact, not all of the Image founders took part in this crossover. Missing were Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Todd McFarlane.

It took me a good 15 years to get around to reading my collection of these books....and, I clearly didn't miss much.

 

[Tron Bonne]

(I'm also dying to find a good Anime title with the thick books you find in bookstores, like Borders and Barnes and Noble. If anyone has any good recommendations, it's appreciated.).

I would recommend a series called Phoenix, great stuff. There's others, but manga/anime I tend to recommend most people don't like, but Phoenix is pretty good stuff

 

[Phaedrus45]

I would recommend a series called Phoenix, great stuff. There's others, but manga/anime I tend to recommend most people don't like, but Phoenix is pretty good stuff

Thanks, Teardrop! The only manga series I ever read was Battle Royale. Great series...but, there really isn't another series like that one out there.

 

[Dark Victory]

Have any of you read Chew? I'm just starting to pick it up and I'm loving it.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I tried...I REALLY TRIED...to read Sovereign Seven. I got through issue #1; but, couldn't get through the second issue. I think I have the entire 36 issued series; but, never got around to reading it.

This series first few issues were very popular, because it was the first stuff Claremont did after leaving Marvel and his big X-Men run. Sales must have slackened quite a bit, and after 36 issues, it was cancelled. The premise was that a group of aliens have been exiled to earth, fighting various villans, one of which is Darkseid. The problem are each of these characters come with some very lame names (Cascade, Finale, Rampart, Reflex, Indigo, Network and Cruiser) and are extremely 2 dimensional. I thought the first couple issues read very much like those bad Image titles of the 90's, where we were introduced to a bunch of new characters in a team, but the reader wasn't given much background on them to make them very unique or interesting.

I was wondering why we didn't see these characters anymore, and that's for two reasons. One, this comic was creator-owned; but, more importantly, "in the final issue it was revealed that the entire series was actually a comic book drawn by two women who reside in the DC Universe and had no effect on DC continuity whatsoever." I'm kind of glad I gave up reading it...what a waste of reading when you discover that an entire series is all made up.

Of some interest, I did read that Power Girl eventually joined the line-up, as Claremont killed off Rampart.


Right now, I put that series away and am reading Millenium, the old DC event. I read the first issue last night..which was more talk than anything else. Before I get to issue #2, I want to look up which of the tie-ins I have, and see how well they tie-in to the issue I just read.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Thanks, Teardrop! The only manga series I ever read was Battle Royale. Great series...but, there really isn't another series like that one out there.

Never read the manga of Battle Royale, but I have read the book. Gantz has a somewhat similar premise. A bunch of people are taken just before they die to fight against outlaw aliens on Earth against their will. I think there's a time limit like Royale and everything, that blows them up if they don't do it quick enough. I've not read any of it, so I can't really suggest, but I've heard it's decent.

Another more recent manga you might enjoy is Death Note. It's somewhat big right now, and getting slightly overblown, but it's still pretty good. Kind of like a supernatural detective story, but told mostly from the POW of the villain.

And, of course, there's always Sailor Moon

 

[Saved]

I don't know if anyone else here has read it, but the Deathstroke series in the 90s was great. I thought it got weak toward the end with issue 50 until its cancelation, but the early to middle stuff was really good. It fleshed out Slade Wilson as not just a mercenary for hire, but a real guy with morals, a code of ethics, and even friends and allies that made his story truly interesting. I'd reccomend it to anyone.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Well I'm still reading through my bound X-Men stuff, and as I've fallen behind on the issue by issue reviews, I don't feel like going back to do them all, but I will say this...

X-Cutioner's Song

Man, I remember when I first read this it blew me away, and it was always my second favorite event behind Age of Apocalypse.

Well, it was still good this time around, no denying that... but I now think that Jean and Scott are the biggest pair of nimwits and nimrods I've ever seen. How blatantly obvious was it that Stryfe was their son, Nathan, from the future (or at least, that's what we were supposed to believe at that point). Everything he did or said to them was such a blatanly obvious clue that I was getting frustrated with them that they were putting it together, and then in the end they still weren't sure? DUH!!!

Other than that, the series was great. I loved getting all the X-Men,X-Factor, and X-Force teams thrown together, and yet, making sense for each squad and such. Blending the Dark Riders, the Horseman of Apocalype, and the MLF was a good touch, and then throwing in then bigtimers Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, and Stryfe to sweeten the deal was just icing on the cake. It really was a phenominal storyline and I still love it... save for Cycops and Jean's niavity.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

So I posted about this in the DD thread, but there aren't too many DD fans around these boards I feel, so I'll just say it here too.

I recently read Last Rites from Daredevil #297-300 by DG Chichester and Lee Weeks (I bought it a while ago but never got around to reading it) and I really loved it. It's basically DD finally deciding that instead of always reacting to the Kingpin's actions against him, he's gonna go out of his way to take down Kingpin, by basically screwing him over from many sides. It's almost like revenge for what Kingpin did in Born Again, and I like that it shows that Daredevil's actually getting some pleasure out of what he's doing. Particularly, the way he deals with Typhoid Mary is pretty crazy, almost crossing the line. It's also nice to see Kingpin in a more desperate state. The story has Hydra and SHIELD involved in it, and while I wasn't too excited about that, it actually works pretty nicely and doesn't take away from the focus on Kingpin. I really liked how Kingpins tries to take down Hydra only to find out he's in way over his head.

Also, great work by Lee Weeks, he is one of my favorites and his work here is great. I really loved this cover:

 

[JewishHobbit]

I've alway been curious about that arc. It was always referenced during one of my favorite Spider-Man arcs that was going on simoutaneously, The Name of the Rose... which delt also with Kingpin... along with his son Richard and the new Rose.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Daredevil was always one of my favorite comics thoughout the years. When I got into comics, it was right when the whole Elektra saga was happening. It was all about either X-Men or Daredevil...PLUS, you had Byrne's excellent run on Fantastic Four! Man, thinking back, the 80's were such a great time in comics. Anyway, Daredevil always had great moments...Elektra, Typhoid Mary, that Last Rites storyline that culminated in issue #300....and, pretty much the entire current DD series since Kevin Smith came aboard.

BTW, besides Manga books, how about the shows I always see in Best Buy? Anything that you guys would consider a must see?

 

[JewishHobbit]

It wasn't until Bendis's run that I realized how great Daredevil could be. I've read his entire run but that's where I stopped. I'm planning on reading Bru's run at some point. Kinda looking forward to it after recently looking through the Decalogue arc that Bendis wrote.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I loved Bendis, and really hated it when he left the title...until I saw what Brubaker did with it. One thing about Brubaker is that he really understand's the history of a character, and brought so much of DD's history back to the comic. Andy Diggle's first two issues have been nice; but, I hate to say, it's not Brubaker.

BTW, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up Gantz and Dead Note. The main recommendation, "Phoenix," wasn't available at that store. I started reading Gantz...so far, it's doing nothing for me. But, I haven't gotten to the action yet. I'll have to keep a look out for Phoenix.